Fallen Blood (8 page)

She stared at him for a second. "How do you know that?"

Well...
that
was a mistake. He was going to
have
to be more careful about his secret. He had forgotten that she didn't know the whole story, or at least what approximated as the whole story, since he had no idea what was going on, either.

"This is about breaking and entering? That's all?" She stood up from their hiding place behind a hedge of bushes across from Chuck's home. "Well, this is crazy then, I'm going to go right downtown and fix this right now.”

The sound of a pickup or something similar turned on somewhere across the street from them. A black SUV gunned its engine, and rode up the street toward them, slamming its breaks to a screeching halt when it got to where they were. Two agents dressed in black jumped out of the SUV, and rushed to grab Heather. To her credit, she turned right before they reached her, and tried to kick one in the shins, yelling 'No!' as they grabbed her. The crazy part of this whole scenario wasn't the fact that they were lifting the kicking screaming girl up off the ground and trying to take her to their vehicle. No, the strangest part for Brian, was that he swore he had just killed these exact same men the night before. Now, he understood that the way they dressed made their appearances predisposed to looking just like each other, but these two
really
looked like the two he met last night.

Here we go again.
Brian leaped over the hedge, using his right hand to balance him on it as he did so. He felt his hand sink into it somewhat from his weight, but he was moving too fast for it to have enough time to off balance him and send him sinking into the bush. The first Agent went down like a rock from the rabbit punch he gave him in the back of the head. His collapsing dropped Heather's legs as he did so, and allowed her to get her feet back on the ground. The second one typically went for the gun in his shoulder holster, getting it all the way out just as Brian knocked the wind out of him, by rabbit punching him in the gut and taking the gun from his flailing hand as he did so. The agent bent down, grabbing his gut, and sucking in air in great gasps. He glanced around quickly to see if there were any witnesses about watching this spectacle, and finding none, Brian quickly cracked the still conscious agent over the back of the head with his own gun, causing him to fall flat on his face on the ground.

"How do you move so fast?" Heather gasped, as she looked from one agent to the next.

"Clean living?" He shrugged and smiled. "Oh and I watch the carbs, as well."

"Here, help me get them in their car."

"Why? I thought we were going to Chuck's?"

"Well, we can't go there now, after this, they're going to know we took their agents out, won't they? And besides, I thought you were going to go downtown and turn yourself in now?" He directed a goofy smile at her.

"Brian, I'm all confused. I don't know what I need to do." She sobbed, and started crying again. He had thought they were past that point already, since they had a chance to bond in the adventure. Yet here she was, starting all over again. Well, he couldn't wait, things needed to move faster. Tossing both the men into the SUV, he climbed into the driver's seat. "You coming?" He shut his door, "Hurry up, this bus is leaving." Yet, he smiled at her to lessen the strength of his words.

She did pause in her crying as she looked at him. He almost wondered if she would go and turn herself in after all. He really didn't want to see her do that. He was enjoying these
moments
with her, even if they had all the law in the town searching for them, and apparently the CIA as well.

"Come on, Heather. These aren't the good guys. Do you really think they're going to play fair or by the book?" He patted the side of the door with his arm hanging outside. "It's now or never." He hoped he sounded confident, he really did. Because he wasn't, not even a bit. Sure, he was excited and happy, but that didn't mean confident. What he had was a plan forming in his mind, and right now he needed her to complete that plan.

"Well?"

She nodded, then ran to the other side of the SUV and opened the door and climbed in. "Where are we going?"

"You keep asking that. Did you know that?" He hit the gas hard. Smoke rose from the SUV's tires as it tried to send itself flying down the street, quickly picking up speed then screeching as it sharply took a right turn. Brian felt a little like Bonnie and Clyde.

The brown station wagon was the first car that Brian had seen since the two of them had reached the small highway several minutes before. He had no intention of allowing this one to pass by, even if normally he rather die than ride in the old thing. He wasn't sure how many cars would be passing down this road, especially since the sun was now starting to set, so he had to take every opportunity that presented itself. Just to make sure that this one didn't pass them by, Brian went out into the street, waving them down. If they were going to ignore him, then they would have to go completely around him. The last thing he wanted to do was leave Heather out here on this deserted stretch of the highway by herself.

Luckily, the car slowed and came to a stop. A middle-aged man with glasses and a strong smell of onions on his breath rolled down his window as Brian walked to the car's driver side.

"What's the problem?" The man asked.

Brian bent down and looked in the man's eyes, as he did so the man visibly flinched.

"No problem, you're just going to give us a ride." Brian smiled and waited for the man to reply.

"That's right, I'm just going to give you a ride." The man repeated and nodded his head.

"Oh, and one more thing, you're not going to remember us or this conversation after you drop us off. You got that?" The man nodded and smiled stupidly. It almost looked as if he was happy to obey Brian. Now, the real question was, would it actually work? He knew it did in all the movies and shows he had watched lately about vampires, but he himself had actually never really tried this little stunt himself. If it did work, then this little stunt would create all new possibilities for the two of them. That little thought actually cheered him up some. A wave of weakness flashed over him, and Brian had to grab the edge of the car door before he collapsed. It only lasted a second, but it reminded him that he was getting weaker each time he did one of his little tricks. He needed to eat, and it had to be soon.

"Heather." He called to her. The blond came running to the car, and ran around to his side of it.

"This nice man has offered to give us a ride."

"Really?" She smiled. He'd forgotten just how beautiful she looked when she smiled. After all, it had been a while since he saw her do it. Certainly not since she came to his home, and never for him. It was always for someone else. Granted, he never ran with her crowd, so it really wasn't a fair observation, but the smile she now had, it was just for him, and that meant it was all his. That little fact in itself made him smile back at her, and all it took was for them both to become fugitives. Not that high of a price when everything was considered.

"Go ahead and climb in the back Heather, I need to check something real quick."

"Are you sure? We don't even know him."

"Trust me, he's the least of our problems." The man behind the wheel turned and nodded in agreement.

"Hi, I'm Bob."

Heather smiled and reluctantly answered him. "Hi, Bob, I'm...Alice."

"That's okay, you don't have to tell me your name, I'm not going to remember you anyway." He smiled matter-of-factly then turned back to look out the front.

"I'll be right back." Brian said, ignoring her wary expression. "Trust me."

Before she could answer him, Brian ran back up the little dirt road they had hidden the SUV in. It had been a good mile up the road, but now that Heather wasn't slowing him down, he was able to cross that distance in just a quick minute, if that. The feeling of dizziness welcomed him as he came to a stop at the black SUV, and just as he suspected, the two agents had somehow opened the locked door and were now half out of the vehicle. Still handcuffed together, mind, back to back, but most of the way out of it.

"I thought I told you to stay put." Brian asked them, as he wagged his finger at them. The closest one to him looked up at him and actually bared his teeth. The very sight of it was bizarre. If it was meant to intimidate him, it failed badly.

"You do understand 'stay', don't you?"

"Go to Hell!" The other one yelled.

"You first." Brian rushed the first agent and snapped his neck with both of his hands. The second one just had time enough to turn and look at him, before he, too, was dead. The thought had crossed his mind as he killed the first one, that there was plenty of blood in either one of these two men to stop his hunger. But the truth was, that he wasn't quite ready to go that far. Killing them yes, as it was necessary for survival. But drinking their blood like in the movies? Well, not yet. he wouldn't. Not when he had a perfectly good supply of the stuff in his home. All he had to do was to drop in and get it, then get out. It couldn't be that hard. The most they would have later tonight would be one car. After all, they couldn't think he was stupid enough to go back to his house could they?

He had just one minor flaw to his plan that he didn't want to think of, and that was what if they had found his blood supply and taken it into custody. The possibility did exist, as how many people would have that much blood in their fridge? Luckily, he had moved it down to the basement fridge when Heather had stayed the night, but still, how long would it take till they found it?

It only took a minute for him to get back to the car where Heather waited. He decided to climb in on the passenger side, just in case he needed to give their driver some more incentive.

"Where to?" The man asked.

"Just drive."

"So where did you go?" Heather asked, as the car picked up speed and they headed down the little highway.

"Oh, my nature called me." He smiled.

She seemed a bit confused by his answer so he decided to change the subject.

"What's your name again?" He asked the driver.

"It's Bob, and you don't have to tell me yours, because I won’t remember it or you." He smiled stupidly at Brian before looking back at the road.

"What's he mean by that?" Heather leaned forward.

Looking back at her, he noticed she had slid to his side of the car at some point. He smiled as reassuring as he could, and just shook his head, not sure how he was supposed to answer her. What would he say? 'Oh, don't worry about it, I just screwed with his brain a bit. He'll be fine...I think?'

"Brian, I'm hungry."

"Aren't we all?" he smiled painfully at her. "Um, what's your name again?" He turned and asked the driver.

"He said his name is Bob." Heather volunteered as the man turned to answer, instead, he just nodded as Heather answered for him.

"And I wont remember you."

Brian shook his head. This wasn't going to do at all. "Bob, is there anywhere we can stop and get some burgers or something?"

The man nodded.

"Could you please buy us some food?" Brian wasn't sure how much money the two of them had.

Bob began to shake his head no, until Brian leaned forward and looked into his eyes, and the man immediately swapped to yes. That last little trick caused a pounding to begin just behind Brian's eyes. It wasn't too bad, but from past experience he knew this was the start to something he rather not go through right now. He needed to find a place to hole up so he could leave Heather alone while she slept. Then he could recover what he needed as quickly as he could.

Otherwise he was going to have to go native, and if that happened, he was going to regret not just trying to suck those agents dry. About twenty minutes later, they had found a little truck stop. Bob went in and brought back some food. Brian picked at his, not really eating much, even though it tasted pretty good. He knew that this food wasn't going to do him much good, except maybe keep him alive, and even that wasn't something he knew for sure.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Heather asked, as she finished her last fries and sucked on her chocolate milk shake. "Are you going to finish that?" She added, when she seen him picking at his burger. He shook his head and offered it to her. She snatched it and his fries, but he decided to keep his strawberry milkshake just in case it would actually help a bit to get something into his stomach.

"Where are you putting that all?"

She was halfway done with his burger already. This was pretty surprising, considering her size and how big that cafe burger was.